The field for Hong Kong's Audemars Piguet QE II Cup at Sha Tin on April 21 has coalesced into a line-up of champions from five countries and two generations.

When the field for the HK$14 million race, the second leg of the World Series, was finalised today, it contained seven horses that have won national championship titles, seven International Group 1 winners, and four winners of national derbies.

The Japan Racing Association (JRA) rates December's Hong Kong Cup (Gr.1) winner Agnes Digital its champion older horse and its highest-rated at 2000m, while it named Hong Kong Mile (Gr.1) victor Eishin Preston as its current top miler. Eishin Preston in 1999 was the JRA's champion juvenile.

Universal Prince was rated Australia's top three-year-old last season after his win in the AJC Australia Derby and he claimed his second International Group 1 in the Ranvet Stakes last month.

Exciting French newcomer to Asia, Okawango, was France's champion juvenile two season's back after taking the Group 1 Grand Criterium. He bounced back to form last week after a nine-month absence to finish second in the Group 3 Prix Edmond Blanc.

With Anticipation last year earned itself the title of America's leading stayer on turf with Group 1 successes in the Man o' War Stakes - beating Silvano, last year's Audemars Piguet QE II Cup winner - and the Sword Dancer Invitational Handicap.

The older brigade of champions is headed by the tireless Jim And Tonic, France's all-time highest stakes winner with more than US$5m, and Indigenous, a former Hong Kong Horse of the Year, who will be making his sixth straight attempt at the Cup after placing third to Silvano last year.

The four derby winners in the field are Universal Prince; 1999 New Zealand Derby winner Helene Vitality, who was second to Nayef in last month's Dubai Sheema Classic; this year's Hong Kong Derby winner Olympic Express; and the 2001 Hong Kong Derby winner Industrial Pioneer, who took the Hong Kong Gold Cup in February.

The third French challenger is Lethals Lady, who is already an experienced international traveller. She placed in the French 1000 Guineas last year and after campaigning in the United States and Singapore for close placings in top company, she was beaten just two lengths by Bedawin in the Prix Edmond Blanc on Wednesday.

Completing the international line-up is Godolphin's Grandera, who placed in three consecutive Group 1 events in Europe last summer before winning the listed Arc Trial Stakes. He was second to Narrative in the Dubai City of Gold (Gr.3) last month.

Many local hopes will rest also with Cheers Hong Kong, who was narrowly beaten by Industrial Pioneer and Helene Vitality in the Hong Kong Gold Cup, and Rainbow And Gold, a genuine stayer who won the 2001 Queen Mother's Cup over 2400m as well as February's Centenary Vase over the Audemars Piguet QE II Cup distance.